York officials preparing for storm

YORK, Maine — Dean Lessard, director of the York Department of Public Works, said his crew is spending the Thursday preparing for the snowstorm expected to hit the area Friday and Saturday.

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By Staff reports

seacoastonline.com

By Staff reports

Posted Feb. 7, 2013 at 1:31 PM
Updated Feb 7, 2013 at 1:33 PM

By Staff reports

Posted Feb. 7, 2013 at 1:31 PM
Updated Feb 7, 2013 at 1:33 PM

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YORK, Maine — Dean Lessard, director of the York Department of Public Works, said his crew is spending the Thursday preparing for the snowstorm expected to hit the area Friday and Saturday.

“A storm of this magnitude really gets our attention,” he said.

Trucks are being fueled and the department has been communicating with the York County Emergency Management Agency.

DPW employees are prepared to work overtime through the storm, Lessard said. York will have up to 20 trucks on the road, including a grader, 11 large dump-body plow trucks and four or five pickup trucks outfitted with plows.

“If the two feet of snow materializes,” he said, the department will call on the York Parks and recreation Department for additional plow trucks.

For York, an extra difficulty on top of the snowfall will be possible coastal flooding.

Because DPW crews are expected to be concentrating on clearing roads, there's a good chance that areas such as Ellis Park at Short Sands Beach and stretches of Long Beach Avenue will be closed near the 10 a.m. high tide expected Saturday.

“It gets a little hectic,” Lessard said of trying to deal with snowfall and flooding simultaneously.

Police and fire officials are standing by with extra personnel and four-wheel drive trucks to help residents, according to Lt. Charles Szeniawski.

Police plan to close off Long Sands Beach at the high tide at 9 a.m. Friday, Szeniawski said, as expected 40-50 mph winds would be expected to move a storm surge over the seawall.

Both the York Beach and York Village fire stations are available as warming stations throughout the weekend to any who need a place to get warm, or who lose heat due to a power outage, he said.

York is expected to get a foot-and-half to two feet of snow.

“We’re hoping folks stay home and stay off the roads,” Szeniawski said.